Chicago helped UKs Ulis hone skills

Tyler Ulis always had something to prove, and maybe the proving ground didn't matter.

Maybe Lima, Ohio, where he spent his childhood -- and which Ulis still lists as his hometown -- could have gotten the pint-sized point guard to Kentucky. Maybe he'd still be running the second platoon on the nation's No. 1 team if he'd never taken a high school detour to Chicago.

Maybe.

But maybe not.

"I would not be here if I didn't move to Chicago, because Ohio is a great state -- that's where I'm from -- but the basketball is just not at the level Chicago is," Ulis says.

See, sometimes nature and nurture aren't at odds.

When you watch Ulis -- all maybe-5-foot-10 of him -- you can see them in perfect harmony.

The never-back-down attitude was always there. James Ulis says his son always wanted to prove he belonged with the bigger guys on the court, always wanted to show he could compete, that he wasn't afraid.

But that confidence you see when Ulis takes the court? That command of an offense? That pestering defense against bigger, stronger guards? It was always in his nature, but it was nurtured in Chicago, on city playgrounds and in suburban gyms.

"You can't hide in that town," James Ulis says.

On Saturday, Ulis will return there as the top-ranked Wildcats take on UCLA in the United Center, part of the CBS Sports Classic. And though Ulis deserves the lion's share of the credit for the player he's become -- he supplied the talent and the work ethic -- Chicago gets an assist.

"People in Ohio get mad -- 'Oh, he probably could have been that here,'" James Ulis says. "But we all know playing in Chicago challenged him."

And that was always part of the plan.

Taste of Chicago

Tyler Ulis was born in Detroit and spent his early years in his father's hometown of Toledo, Ohio, but when his parents divorced -- James Ulis and Kelly Reed both have remarried and remain good friends -- Ulis began to divide his time between Lima, Ohio, where he lived with his mother, and suburban Chicago, where he visited his father.

Ulis first visited Chicago at age 5, James Ulis says, and some of his earliest basketball experiences were camps there.

"Right away, he played against really good players," James Ulis says.

Ulis took to basketball at and early age, and as he began to grow older -- though not much taller -- his parents began to have discussions about him moving in with his father when it was time for high school hoops.

"We knew that his size would always come into question," James Ulis says. "People would wonder if he could play."

A sure-fire way to avoid the questions: Put Ulis in a position to play against the best of the best.

In Chicago, that can mean the city's famed high school Public League. But James Ulis, who works for Nike, lived in the suburbs and wanted his son to attend a school there. They chose Marian Catholic in Chicago Heights, about 30 miles from the city but not far removed from its hoops influence.

In high school games and on the playground, Ulis learned the characteristics of a Chicago player.

"Tough, will do anything to get the job done," Ulis says. "Just wants to win."

In the East Suburban Catholic Conference, Ulis saw stiff competition. It only stiffened in the summers, when he played for the Meanstreets AAU program.

James Ulis still remembers the day in Wisconsin when his son played with Meanstreets against rival Mac Irvin Fire. The Milwaukee Bucks' Jabari Parker was on that Fire team. So was Duke center Jahlil Okafor. Ulis scored 20-plus points, his father says.

Ulis was only playing with the same chip on his shoulder he'd always had against the bigger kids. But his new hometown had provided him a bigger, brighter stage on which to display it.

"Unquestionably he's always had it," James Ulis says. "But there's a difference between having it and proving it when you get that opportunity."

Meanstreets provided that opportunity. So did Marian Catholic, a good school not known for its basketball prowess playing in one of the suburbs' toughest conferences.

Ulis was the Spartans' best player. It wasn't close.

For Marian Catholic to win, James Ulis says, his son had to "play every possession at another level."

And he did.

Taking Notice

Ulis left Marian Catholic as the school's all-time leader in points, assists and steals. As a senior, he averaged 23 points, 6.8 assists and 3.7 steals in leading the Spartans to their second-straight appearance in a Super Sectional. At one point in Ulis' senior year, Marian Catholic won 28 straight games.

"When I finally moved to Chicago, it was tough leaving my mom," Ulis says, "but it gave me a great opportunity because the market there is so big and all the great talent there."

As Ulis proved he was the equal -- and often the superior -- of those talented players, coaches took notice. So did recruiting services.

A stellar summer in Nike's Elite Youth Basketball League -- including a memorable 22-point, 17-assist game against eventual Duke signee Tyus Jones at Peach Jam last summer -- helped skyrocket Ulis up the recruiting rankings. He earned a fifth star and finished No. 21 in Rivals' Class of 2014 rankings.

But Ulis didn't settle.

"Everything he has right now, he should take a lot of credit, because he worked his butt off," James Ulis says. "I kind of set him up with certain things and kind of instilled in him, 'If you want to be great, Tyler -- you're gonna be 5-10 -- you need to be the best on the court every time you step on. You got to be in great condition.' And I think playing against some of the best players in Chicago, (the media) realized, 'If he's doing this in Chicago, this guy is legit.'"

John Calipari realized it, too.

Though Kentucky was a late arrival in Ulis' recruitment -- Iowa began pursuing him early in his high school career, and Michigan State got in long before the Wildcats -- it offered Ulis an opportunity to play for a coach who'd had great success with Chicagoans, notably No. 1 draft picks Derrick Rose and Anthony Davis.

Those three players were "all different," Calipari said -- Rose played at Simeon Career Academy, one of Chicago's most storied high school programs, Davis at Perspectives Charter School, one of its worst, Ulis at a private suburban school -- but share common characteristics.

Calipari notes that even as Rose has battled injuries -- and scrutiny for sitting out with them -- his Bulls teammates have come to his defense. He points out the way Davis rushes to celebrate teammate Tyreke Evans when he's playing well, even if it means Davis is touching the ball less.

"This kid's the same way," Calipari says. "He's cheering for Andrew (Harrison, UK's starting point guard) to do well. And he knows how good Andrew is, and even though they run the different teams and they go at each other, he has great respect and he's a great teammate."

And he's playing on a great team. On Saturday, Ulis and his new team visit his old town.

Coming Home

Calipari is fond of saying that he's never coached a guy who's played well in a homecoming game.

He's exaggerating (he does that), but his point -- that it's a challenge for a player to thrive amid the distractions of coming home -- is valid.

"I would love to break that," Ulis says. "Hopefully I don't go down there and play bad."

Ulis admits he's looking forward to his trip back home. He'll get to stay through Christmas day, and he's looking forward to time with family and friends. He's anxious to eat at Harold's Chicken Shack, his favorite Chicago restaurant.

"People forget these kids are 18 years old," James Ulis says. "Tyler loves basketball, loves playing at Kentucky, but he also loves his bedroom and hanging out in the basement. The kids he played with in high school are really close."

But Ulis doesn't see his homecoming as a distraction.

With two parents, two stepparents and an extended family in Ohio, he's accustomed to tracking down extra tickets, and he'd already secured some as of Thursday. His former Marian Catholic teammates can fend for themselves, he says, and won't have any problem springing for their own seats.

"I don't think (playing at home) will affect his game," said teammate Devin Booker, Ulis' closest friend on the team. "He's a general out there. He doesn't play bad very often. I haven't really seen him play bad ever. If he's not scoring, if his shot's not falling, he just gets everybody involved."

Ulis, who's averaging 4.8 points and 3.7 assists per game, hasn't taken more than six shots in a game all season. He doesn't need to put up big scoring numbers to impress anyone in the stands.

"It's not like I'm gonna come out and jack 20 shots up and miss 15," Ulis says. "So it helps me out. My job (is) play defense and distribute and score when I have to. It'll just be another game."

For once, playing in the city that helped shape him, maybe Tyler Ulis has nothing to prove.

"I consider myself a Chicago player, an Ohio player," Ulis says. "I'm from both. I just grew up playing with a lot of guys out of Chicago and in Ohio and it just made me who I am today."